XCOM2: Comrades Remembered
by robbiekiwi
Summary: Bradford goes to the Memorial Bar, and remembers the fallen. My first fanfic.


**AN: So here is the thing, this is first fanfic, just to test my skills, and see what kind of writing I enjoy. This is a one shot. Just tell me if you like the story or not, have fun reading.**

 **Xcom2: Comrades remembered.**

 _It's far too quiet here now_ , thought Central officer John Bradford as he walked through the almost empty corridors of the Avenger. It had been only three days since the AVATAR project had been shut down. Since then the Avenger had been resting in the main resistance camp located in the western United States. The majority of the surviving XCOM soldiers had been helping the resistance in hunting down the remaining ADVENT forces, but a small force had elected to stay behind on the ship. Officially there guarding the Avenger incase if ADVENT tried anything while they were grounded. Unofficially however Bradford knew they just wanted some time to come to terms with what has happened over the last few months. Bradford sighed. He couldn't blame them, not after what they went through fighting ADVENT. Since the Commander was out of commission Bradford had been temporarily placed in charge of XCOM. For Three days he has been constantly working his ass off trying to keep everything working properly, only now after some personal debate (and constant nagging from Shen) he taking the time to go and have a drink in the memorial bar. Bradford turned the corner and was greeted by very somber music. There was four other people in the memorial bar with him. The bartender, a corporal named Steve king was the first to notice him.

"Central sir!" the young Australian (though he claims to be half New Zealander) corporal said. "What will it be?"

"The usual solider," Bradford replied as he sat down next to Brenden 'Highlander' Mcintosh who was slumped over unconscious and Wendy 'Ace' James who smiled at him.

"Right away sir!" King said. "How's our commander doing?"

"He's still recovering from the leviathan mission but he'll survive." Bradford said as he received his drink.

"What about Taylor, sir?" Ace questioned.

"Still in the med bay but he will be up and walking again tomorrow." Bradford replied as he sipped his drink.

"Good to hear," Ace said "I have something important to tell him."

"And what might that be?" Bradford asked.

"You'll see." Ace cryptically replied, then left.

 _What the hell?_ Bradford thought as he watched her leave. "What up with her?" he asked King.

"No idea," King respond. "She has been wearing this strange smile for some time now, and when she came into the bar she asked for water. JUST WATER for Christ sake! The woman who could drink every one of her comrades under the table asking for just water! But enough about that, I want to ask you something."

"Something wrong Corporal?" Bradford questioned after noticing the serious look on his face.

King pointed to the end of the room "Could you check on the Colonel over there? She's just been standing there since she left the infirmary, hasn't talked to anyone."

Bradford grimaced and stood up, he had a gut feeling what the problem was. "I'll check it out, in the meantime could you get Highlander to bed? I think he's had enough." As if on cue Highlander started muttering something about ADVENT burgers.

As Bradford left King to deal with Highlander he took a moment to take in memorial pictures decorating the wall, the faces of the departed XCOM soldiers stared back at him. He then looked at the XCOM Colonel down at the end of the room. Colonel Jane 'Grey Bandit' Kelly had changed a lot since the start of the second war, she no longer wore a baseball cap instead electing to grow out the bangs of brown hair in front of her face, faint scars could be seen running across her cheeks and lips, golden earrings hung from her ears, and a line of dark grey face paint from right temple to the left matching the color of her battle armor earning her the nickname 'Grey bandit'. The Colonel stood in the corner staring at four memorial pictures on the wall. Bradford walked up to her.

"Hello sir." Bandit said wearily. "How is the commander?"

Bradford sighed. "Alive, he's currently resting in his room."

"Good to hear." Bandit replied. "We've lost too many good people to lose him now."

Silence reigned for a minute or two, then Bandit gesture to the two higher pictures. "Remember these two?" she asked.

"You mean the Gatecrashers?" Bradford replied looking at the wall, the photos of Ana Ramirez and Peter Osei stared back at him. "How could I forget?"

"We would have never gotten the Commander out alive without them." Bandit admitted sadly, tracing the picture frames with her fingers before moving down to the pictures below.

"Lieutenant Johnathan 'Firefly' Shepard," Bradford read out loud. "You knew him well?"

"Yeah, we were good friends," Bandit bowed her head. "His daughter just got married recently, I talked to her, and she promised to name any future children after me… or him."

"You must be proud." Bradford said.

"I guess." Bandit sighed before moving on to the last picture, this one Bradford could tell was the source of the problem.

"Harry 'Warbird' Roberts," Bradford read. "He was on the leviathan mission."

"Yeah," Bandit said quietly. "It was nearing the end of the fighting, Archangel had the last AVATAR pinned down and the others rushed to help him, but Warbird and I got pinned down by some Mutons," She sighed sadly. "We were hurt pretty bad and he only had time to heal one of us, so he healed me, then the AVATAR appeared in front of us, I sliced it up but not before it…" she started choking up, Bradford put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Do you think it was all worth it sir? All this death and loss?"

Bradford sighed. "I don't know Jane, but the way I see it, the only way we will ever find out, is if we never give up, and keep fighting for what we believe in," Jane perked up a bit at that. "Now go and rest up, you've had a long day."

"Yes sir!" Bandit said, then left.

Bradford finished his drink then packed up the bar, before leaving he took one last look at the wall of fallen soldiers.

"Rest well men, you've earned it, your sacrifice will be remembered."


End file.
